Zhu Min, vice president of the Bank of China, said Friday that he was confident that China's economy could expand by 8 percent or even faster next year, but the country should also mull over its economic development path in the next decade.

Zhu made the remarks during the ongoing Summer Davos in north China's coastal city of Dalian.

His views were echoed by many other attendees of the three-day event, at which about 1,400 governmental officials, business leaders and experts from around the world are discussing how to relaunch growth in the global economy.

GREEN AND LOW CARBON ECONOMY

Liu Xiaoguang, president and chief executive officer of Beijing-based Capital Group, told Xinhua that the green economy would trigger a new round of industrial revolution globally, and it would become the new global economic growth locomotive in following years.

"Companies within traditional industries should endeavor to make full use of the current timing and beef up efforts on technological innovation in this area," Liu added.

"The green economy is no longer an abstract concept," said Wu Changhua, Greater China director of the Climate Group, an independent, not-for-profit organization, adding that it was an effective way of the future development, amid the backdrop of the constraints of limited natural resources and the rising energy consumption demand.

China will accelerate the development of a low carbon economy and green economy so as to gain an advantageous position in the international industrial competition, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Thursday in his speech delivered to the opening ceremony of the forum.

"We will, at the same time, speed up the upgrading of traditional industries through new and high technologies and advanced applicable technologies and substantially increase the level of modernization in agriculture, manufacturing and the traditional service sector," Wen said.

TALENTS AND INNOVATION

Experts held that talents and innovation played a crucial role in boosting the future economic growth in the post-crisis period.

Klaus Kleinfeld, president and chief executive officer of the Alcoa Inc., said that talents were the only sustainable competitive capacity for any company.

James J. Schiro, Group CEO and Chairman of the Group Management Board of Zurich Financial Services from Switzerland, said at the forum that the driving force of development for any organization was to continue innovation and help the younger generation to take lead in next round of growth.

"To overcome the severe international financial crisis, we must rely more on science and technology in making breakthroughs and boosting development. We will make China a country of innovation," Wen said.

Wen added that China would seek breakthroughs in key technologies vital to industrial transformation and upgrading, speed up the development of new industries of strategic importance, and give priority to research, development, and industrial application of technologies in new energy, new materials and other sectors.

(Xinhua News Agency September 11, 2009)